So, tonight, I decided to write about 2 stories, both of which I saw featured on the BBC news website. The first is really amazing, I couldn’t not write about it! The second? Well I thought it was quite apt given the release of Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, Lego Harry Potter, Assassins Creed, Super Mario 3D Land and the continuing plethora of games being released this month. So, here goes! The writings and ramblings of my second blog post:
My reaction to the first story? Wow, simply wow. 6 months ago, a (now) 8 month old boy was close to death after a virus attacked his liver, causing it to fail. Approximately half of children with acute liver failure would be treated with a liver transplant*, however, instead of putting him on the transplant list, doctors decided to inject donor liver cells into his body. Remarkably, it worked and he was CURED! The cells acted as a temporary liver, producing vital proteins (clotting factors etc) and processing toxins, allowing his liver to recover and repair itself. Doctors started seeing results after just 2 weeks.
The treatment requires a larger clinical trial to be performed, to test its effectiveness, before it would be able to benefit other patients. However, it is very promising, and if successful could decrease the number of patients who, unfortunately, die waiting for a new liver. Even if a patient receives a new liver, there is a risk of rejection, minimised by the use of immunosuppressant’s. The fascinating part of the procedure, performed at Kings College Hospital in London (England), is a chemical coating the donor liver cells, derived from algae, which allows immune evasion. Thus, there was no need for immunosuppressive drugs.
Would it be possible to coat all organs for transplant in this chemical? The chemical itself, I believe, is sodium alginate, extracted from the walls of brown algae. The hepatocytes (liver cells) are encapsulated in said chemical, allowing them to remain where they are transplanted. The donor hepatocytes would be expected to act as a temporary liver until the host liver regenerates or until a transplant becomes available.
Further links relating to this story:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/medicine/research/gcbt/researchgroups/hepatocytes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_alginate#Sodium_alginate
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15744176
* http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/a/acute-liver-failure/
On to the second article. “Gamers” appear to have different brains to “non-gamers”. For those of you who have ever been Skyrim, WoW, or COD widows, now you may have your answer. According to the BBC News website, a new study (conducted on 154, 14 year olds from Berlin) has found a larger ventral striatum, part of the reward centre of the brain and implicated in motivation, in “frequent gamers”.
The teenagers were ranked by the number of hours a week they play and split into 2 groups. Anyone who played over 9 hours of video games a week was classed as a “frequent gamer”. 24 females and 52 males were classed as frequent gamers, while just 20 males and 58 females were classed as infrequent gamers, however, at no point in the study do they mention that gender may be a factor. Interesting.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of kids who play only a moderate amount of video games, which, personally, I would class as 9-10 hours a week, however, I would also say, it is not uncommon for teenagers to play over double this per week. It is interesting, however, that the research seems to imply playing just half a day of video games per week may have a significant effect on the structure of the brain. However, scientists admit that they do not know whether this results from playing video games, or if those with a larger ventral striatum are just more likely to play. There is however, more evidence that points towards the latter. The next step in the research is to ask adults, who don’t play video games, to start playing and monitor changes in their brain structure.
The ventral Striatum has also been associated with drug addiction, however, none of the gamers studied was classed as “addicted” to video games. Knowing this, I think it would be interesting to see if those with a hobby they practise for many hours a week also have different brain structures, for example, dancers, musicians, and athletes. How do their brains compare?
Full story can be found: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15720178
The study results can be found: http://www.nature.com/tp/journal/v1/n11/full/tp201153a.html
Hope everyone has a great Thursday and an awesome weekend :D
